Tadpole traps make tadpole control more effective

Frogwatch has been conducting field trials of the cane toad tadpole control technique using the bufotoxin secretions of cane toads as bait to attract tadpoles into traps. In short we put toad toxin from the glands of toads into the traps and effectively removed tadpoles.

In our first trial the tadpole traps captured all of the tadpoles in a backyard pond and no metamorph toads (small toads newly emerged from the tadpole stage) were seen at the site. In the second trial the traps collected 16116 tadpoles and just 67 metamorphs were collected from the site